Open Mind On January

We should be aware that we could lose someone because everyone is talking about more players coming in"

Ståle Solbakken

Ståle Solbakken has played down suggestions that there will be a surprise departure from Molineux during the January transfer window.

There have been outside reports that Wolves may be planning a high-profile sale next month but the manager has made it clear nothing is lined up.

“There’s not anyone in particular but you never know,” he said. “You get offers and you can get a desperate club.

“We saw that in the last transfer window when we suddenly lost our players five days before the deadline due to buying and selling in the market.

“So it’s not that there’s someone precise we think we’re going to lose but that we should be aware that we could lose someone because everyone is talking about more players coming in.”

As one of the players out of contract at the end of the season, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake has already been linked by the media with other clubs.

But the boss added of the seven-goal striker: “I haven’t thought about Sylvan in that direction.

“He has been unlucky in front of goal but he has been working harder than ever and his attitude is 100 per cent. On and off the pitch, he has been superb.

“Even when he hasn’t been playing, he has been encouraging the other players and he has been very positive. So I’m not thinking about him – I was thinking more generally.”

Wolves failed to take their chances in last weekend’s unlucky defeat at Middlesbrough and will be looking to be more clinical at Blackpool tomorrow (7.45pm).

“You can look at it from the other side, in that there were far too many loose balls in the penalty area that for one reason or another didn’t drop to us,” Solbakken said.

“But there were too many balls flying across without us being on the end of them. So I also want to know why that’s happening.

“Sometimes we attacked the crosses but in the wrong area. Maybe we were also a bit unlucky because we had four shots and the keeper made saves but each of the rebounds went straight to Middlesbrough players.

As good as (Jonathan) Woodgate might be, I don’t think it was down to his anticipation each time where the ball went after the keeper saved it instead of going to one of our players! That would be too much to ask.”

Asked whether he would be chasing a striker in January, the manager replied: “We’re looking at everything but I’m not going into specific areas we’re targeting.

“It’s important to say we’re not buying for the sake of it. The market is much more difficult in January than it is in the summer.

“Every player we buy, there must be a reason for it. They must have qualities that the players here haven’t got, so we have a more complete squad and more complete choices for picking the right team every time.”